The night air was wrong.
Lena felt it the moment she stepped outside the healer’s lodge. The forest that usually breathed with quiet life, the rustling leaves, the distant calls of nocturnal animals felt tense, as if the entire land were holding its breath.
The moon hung high above Ravenridge territory, bright and cold. Its pale light spilled through the towering pines, painting silver patterns across the ground.
Yet beneath that beauty, something darker stirred.
Lena pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders.
Her heart beat faster for reasons she couldn’t explain.
Inside her chest, something restless twisted something deeper than instinct.
Her wolf.
Danger, the quiet voice inside her whispered.
She tried to ignore it, but the feeling only grew stronger.
Across the clearing,
